New Evidence on Principles

3.5.1 Consider using a threat related to likely or severe consequences that can be avoided.
New evidence shows that fear is more likely to be aroused by describing vivid and fearful consequences than by stressing that the harmful event is likely. To the extent that emphasis is placed on a possible fearful outcome, people tend to ignore the probability of such an event (Sunstein & Zeckhauser 2011). This leads to irrational decisions. Action with respect to a message of fear is more likely when blame can be ascribed to others (e.g., corporations or foreigners) or when the person has no control over the event (dying in an airplane crash versus when driving an automobile). [For details on this study, see “how to use fear persuade.”]

7.13.1 Use disclaimers or corrective advertising only if they provide information that customers need.
Persuasive Advertising (2010) provided 5 studies with 7 experiments. Further analysis has yielded additional evidence such that there are now 17 studies with 24 experiments. The findings reinforce the conclusion that market forces (i.e., cautious customers and firms’ desires to please customers and avoid law suits) are best for consumers in practice. Government mandated disclaimers were expensive and confusing in all experimental comparisons, and in all of the 14 studies (with 21 experimental comparisons) that examined intentions or decisions Green & Armstrong 2012).

Principles

Evidence on principles listed by principle

References

The following references were used to create, test, and illustrate principles. The articles can be accessed on the Internet by inserting the title of the paper in a Google Advanced Search, while the books can be accessed via Amazon. (Scott Armstrong’s papers can be accessed by clicking on the titles.)

Videos on research studies

This section presents videos that illustrate evidence for the persuasion principles.

Conditions: High vs. low involvement

Marshmallow study for impatience. The marshmallow study has been described as relating to self-control, delayed gratification, or patience. Originally done by Walter Mischel in 1972, it shows that some people are willing to pause and think about an action before plunging ahead. Note that the concept of involvement is related to the type of customer as well as to the product. This and related tests, which have been given to people as young as 4 years, is predictive of how people fare in later life. For example, related tests been shown to be better than IQ as a predictor of how someone will do in school (see Duckworth & Seligman, 2005, “Self-discipline outdoes IQ in predicting academic performance of adolescents,” Psychological Science, 16, 939-944. There are many demonstrations on YouTube besides the one shown here. For a description, see Deferred Gratification.

2.0 Influence
Here is an overview of the influence principles by the man who identified them, Robert Cialdini.

2.2.1 Show that the product is widely used (social proof)
Asch experiment: In 1955, Solomon Asch asked subjects to participate in a "vision test." In reality, all but one of the participants in this experiment were confederates of the experimenter. The study was really about how the lone subject would react to the confederates' behavior. It demonstrated that a group’s opinions are very powerful in inducing conformity, even though the subjects had no prior acquaintance with the other subjects. There were many extensions of this study, which is regarded as one of the classic studies on social psychology. For an interesting description of this stream of research see Asch’s Conformity Study.

Elevator behavior: This demonstration, from Candid Camera, shows how people conform to the behavior of others.

2.4 Attribution
John Stossel demostrates experiments on the effects of attribution on behavior. He also describes the famous blue-eye brown-eye demonstration. The effects are strong as you will see.

2.6. Authority
Milgram’s obedience study: It has always been known that authority affects behavior. However, the strength of this effect was not fully appreciated until the influential studies by Stanley Milgram starting in the 1960s. For an excellent summary of this and related follow-ups, see the Psychwiki entry.

4.0 Mere exposureThis demonstration shows that exposure to messages affects us even when we pay little attention (low involvement). In contrast to the viewpoint of the makers of the video, this is not based on subliminal images.

5.1. Distraction
Watch this video and answer the questions. Here is another one.